RNC, Ron Paul backers seek peace

BOSTON—The acrimony between the Republican establishment and Ron Paul supporters who took control of state parties in 2012 has begun to fade as a new period of détente - even cooperation - starts to shape their often-fraught relationship.

And both sides say the togetherness - a behind-the-scenes priority for Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus - could be an important key to GOP success in the midterms and perhaps 2016.

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After Paul supporters won control of the Nevada GOP last year at a convention, Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee went around them by erecting a shadow party to funnel resources through.

The RNC desperately wants to avoid repeating this again in next year’s midterms, fearing that a failure to tamp down the flames of factionalism could imperil GOP hopes of winning targeted Senate and governor’s races from Iowa to Maine and Minnesota.

So national party brass are seeking cooperation, even friendship, in most of the states where libertarians made the deepest inroads. They’ve decided that it is easier to win with honey than the hardball tactics of the past.

RNC chief of staff Mike Shields said this is part of a broader strategy to strengthen the party from the bottom up with stronger outreach, better coordination and more field staff.

“Every state party is buying into what we’re doing,” he said. “When you’re working on a plan together, when you’re working on ways to target voters and turn them out … perhaps that bypasses some of the other conversations that have gone on in the past.”

Still smarting from last November’s thumping, both sides have matured and became savvier about working together. The loyalty of the Paul folks has shifted from father to son, and many believe they can be most helpful to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s likely 2016 presidential campaign if they have a seat at the table.

The peacemaking bid starts with Nevada. Seeking a second term as RNC chairman in January, Priebus flew to Las Vegas to mend fences. Most major donors, including Sheldon Adelson, had stopped funding the party when the Paul forces took over.

“He has helped eliminate some of the barriers that we had with some of the casino owners,” said Nevada national committeeman James Smack, wearing a “Stand with Rand” button Friday here at the party’s three-day summer meeting.

Some of the more hardcore Paul supporters have been pushed out of leadership positions at the local level. The Clark County Republican Party, for instance, censured Priebus last year for supporting Romney before he officially beat Paul at the summer convention. But last month, the party voted to replace the county chair who pushed that resolution with David McKeon, an unapologetic establishmentarian and the son of California Rep. Buck McKeon.

The pro-Paul forces are now working with party officials to make a bid for Vegas to host the Republican National Convention in 2016. And Smack got appointed this week to an important subcommittee that will influence the nominating calendar.

At a contentious convention last year in Maine, Paul supporter Ashley Ryan was elected the youngest Republican national committeewoman ever at 21.

Ryan said she has developed a lot of relationships in the year since then that make her more effective. Priebus number two and RNC co-chair Sharon Day, for example, has reached out to her about how the party can better appeal to women.

“Maine has come a long way in its relationship with the RNC,” said Ryan. “It’s a lot harder to yell at someone or to hate someone that you know their kid’s name or you’ve met their wife or you met their husband or you bonded over both loving the Red Sox. So you get less of a screaming match and more of a real discussion.”

Maine Republicans just elected a new state chairman, a former state Senate president, who they hope can get the party out of debt and work well with the reelection campaign of Gov. Paul LePage while keeping both factions together.

Ryan said an upcoming special state Senate election offers an early test of how well the Paulites and party officials can work together.

“You can’t have unity overnight,” she said. “We’re heading in a good direction.”

Maine’s national committeeman Mark Willis, who waged a long-shot challenge to prevent Priebus from getting a second term, has spent much of this year trying to overturn changes made to the party rules at the behest of the Romney campaign ahead of last summer’s national convention. Many of the tweaks will make it harder for an insurgent candidate like Ron Paul to get traction against a well-funded, establishment favorite in 2016.

Willis’ resolution to go back to the rules from 2008 went nowhere during a committee hearing this week controlled by party traditionalists.

“If they are trying to make peace, then they have a strange way of going about it,” said Willis. “At this point, I’m not seeking peace. I’m seeking justice. There won’t be peace within the party until there is justice for what happened in Tampa.”

Priebus invited Spiker to go on a junket to Taiwan last month with nine other RNC members, an opportunity he enjoyed.

There are perennial reports in Iowa of tension between Spiker and Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who is up for reelection next year, but Spiker said it is overstated. He said he has “a great relationship” with Priebus and “a good working relationship” with Branstad.

“We’re in good shape, but there will be plenty of spin,” said Spiker. “I will tell you there were people who attempted to have us bypassed, but I just don’t think I’ve been difficult. Otherwise they would be bypassing me.”

Spiker notes that his party is among the top 10 with cash on hand and has no debt, which 19 state GOPs do. He said heavy turnover among the Republican chairs of states and territories makes him no longer feel like the new kid on the block.

“I’m 25th of 56 in seniority, and I’ve been around 18 months,” he said.

Iowa national committeeman Steve Scheffler, a social conservative activist in the key presidential state, said Spiker worked to gain the confidence of Priebus last year so that the state party was not bypassed like Nevada.

“The bottom line is that people who look objectively say AJ [Spiker] has done a good job,” he said. “Anytime new people come into the party you have growing pains.”

Just north in Minnesota – another state whose delegation Paul controlled at the national convention – the state GOP faced eviction from their headquarters last spring for unpaid rent. And the establishment favorite for U.S. Senate lost at a state convention to a libertarian state representative named Kurt Bills, who ran an inept campaign and lost the general election by 34 points.

Many mainstream Republicans broke for the liberal incumbent, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, proving once and for all that infighting has consequences.

A new chair, Keith Downey, took over in April with support from all blocs to focus on retiring debt, getting the business community off the sidelines and bringing peace between libertarians and party regulars.

Activists say that Bills’ crushing defeat has done some damage to the liberty movement psyche, causing soul searching and a renewed focus on electability.

Minnesota national committeeman Jeff Johnson, who is running for governor next year, said the Paul people are still a force but less so than in the past.

“I really feel like we have gotten past the worst of the factionalism,” he said. “Hopefully at least there won’t be portions of each faction trying to drive the other out of the party.”